...going back to Italy...I swear this box of pictures I have sitting at my foot will become the death of me if I don't get busy scanning them all in.
Venice (End of Sept. 2001) was one of our favorites stops despite our being stuck there without any room in the inn. The day we were supposed to leave the transportation department went on strike and closed everything down. By the time we realized this all the rooms in the whole city were booked so we ended up spending the day/night in the train station. We didn't have much for pillows and blankets so we used our backpacks as pillows and the 2 sweatshirts as blankets and made bed on the concrete floor. At one point I woke up practically nose to nose with a stranger...apparently my backpack looked pretty comfortable. After that Greg and I slept in shifts. At another point we had a drunk offer us a bed at his house (not to be judgemental but we doubt he owned much more than what he had on). When he reached into his trench coat Greg stood up not knowing what he might pull out and immediately the carabinieri (Italian Police) where right there to escort this "regular" out of the train station by name. The next morning we were still without transportation so we hung out waiting for them to open back up and met some very interesting travelers. One guy was living the European dream, backpacking with little to no money selling art to get from one city to another, staying in hostel after hostel. When the trains started running again they were SO CROWDED. We rode from Venice to Rome which was a 6 hour trip and about half of that was standing shoulder to shoulder and practically chest to chest in the isle of the train. Remember I was pregnant...ugh...the smells were miserable. There were supposedly smoking and non smoking carts but I am not sure you could tell the difference. My green face must have shown because we were offered seats eventually.
Despite that we really did LOVE Venice. This will have to be a 2 part post because there are LOTS more pictures that just these...
watching the train schedule empty out...
unless you have been in a station and heard the constant flipping of the letters/numbers it is hard to imagine the deafening quiet of them not flipping
to match the mood it was cold and rainy that day as well
yipee! Like our pillows?
one of the MANY phones used to call home and let our family know we were safe and sound...not sure we told them about our adventure until we got home
street troubadours were so fun to watch and listen...we also saw many mimes
until our next trip where I promise you will see the AWESOMENESS of Venice!
we were in Italy just days after 9/11 and people were burning candles to remember the fallen Itallian Americans
see Greg?
see me?
farmers markets pop up out of no where
crazy bird ladies! Word of the wise never put your hand out when someone tries to give you something...they will put bird food in your hand and the birds will attack and then they expect you to pay them for the food
I find it kinda funny all the random people I have in my pictures...for example this one I was really taking a picture of the people playing the music, but my lack of photo composition makes it look like I was taking pictures of the people sitting around eating and drinking. Wouldn't it be funny if someone randomly found my blog and saw a picture of themself...rambling sorry!
